The 20 Most Common Interview Questions (and How to Answer Them)

Roughly 80% of any interview is built from the same two dozen questions, lightly reworded. Prepare these well and you walk in with most of the loop already handled.

The opener

1. Tell me about yourself. Not your life story — a 60–90 second pitch: present (what you do now), a proof point or two, and why you're here for this role. We wrote a full breakdown in how to answer "tell me about yourself".

2. Why do you want to work here? Show you researched the company. Tie one specific thing about the product/mission to your own goals.

3. Why are you leaving your current role? Stay positive and forward-looking. "I've learned a lot; I'm looking for X that this role offers." Never bad-mouth.

Strengths, weaknesses, and fit

4. What's your greatest strength? Pick one relevant to the job and back it with a quick example.

5. What's your greatest weakness? Name a real one and the system you've built to manage it. Avoid the humble-brag ("I work too hard").

6. Where do you see yourself in five years? Show ambition that's plausible from this role.

7. Why should we hire you? A crisp summary of your top 2–3 differentiators mapped to the job description.

The behavioral block

These all use the STAR method:

8. Tell me about a time you faced a conflict.
9. Describe a failure and what you learned.
10. A time you led a project.
11. A time you handled pressure or a tight deadline.
12. A time you went above and beyond.
13. A time you had to learn something quickly.

Role and judgment

14. Walk me through your resume. A narrative, not a recital — connect the dots between roles. 15. What are you looking for in your next role? Align honestly with what the job offers. 16. How do you prioritize competing work? Show a real method (impact vs. effort, deadlines, stakeholder value). 17. How do you handle feedback? Demonstrate you seek it and act on it.

The close

18. What questions do you have for us? Always have three. Ask about the team's biggest challenge, what success looks like in 90 days, and how the interviewer likes working there. This is scored — silence here reads as low interest.

19. What are your salary expectations? Give a researched range and anchor on value. Deflect early if you can ("I'd love to learn more about scope first").

20. Is there anything else we should know? Your chance to land one more differentiator or address a gap proactively.

How to actually prepare

Reading the list isn't preparation — saying the answers out loud is. The gap between "I know this" and "I can deliver it crisply under pressure" only closes with reps. Practising with real-time prompts and structure feedback compresses that: you hear yourself ramble, tighten it, and repeat until each answer lands in under a minute.

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Go deeper with behavioral questions and STAR, or if you're in tech, the software engineer interview prep guide.